[ A small, grateful smile. ]

I have thought to ask, but ... I want to know, and yet I fear the answer.

[ He's afraid that they will be remembered for the madness and misery into which they descended. That those who came after will have discovered the desperate means that the men resorted to, for survival. He wanted to be remembered, but not like that. ]

Eventually I suppose I must know. Else someone shall tell me unthinkingly, and I would not like to find out that way.